A private jet has been impounded in Hampshire over its suspected links to a Russian oligarch.

The Bombardier Global 6500 arrived at Farnborough airport on 4 March from New Jersey and was due to fly to Dubai on Tuesday.

But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps temporarily banned it from carrying passengers and grounded it that day to investigate claims it could be linked to the billionaire Russian oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler.

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Mr Shvidler is a friend of Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club with close links to Vladimir Putin – who announced he was selling the club when the UK first imposed sanctions against the Russian president’s inner circle.

A government source has said Mr Shvidler is “free to continue his journey by other means”.

But a revoked foreign carrier permit and restriction of flying order will mean the plane cannot leave the UK until Attorney General Suella Braverman and the National Crime Agency carry out their probe.

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The jet is registered to a Luxembourg-based firm called Global Jet Luxembourg, but the ownership of private planes is often hard to decipher as they normally involve third parties.

On Wednesday the government brought in new rules that makes it illegal for any plane chartered or owned by Russians to enter UK airspace.

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Mr Shapps claimed Britain is the first country in the world to do so.

He can also now order the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to terminate registration of planes owned by sanctioned Russians.

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A private jet owned by Mr Abramovich is thought to have left Stansted Airport for Basel, Switzerland, last week before the new rules on private planes were brought in.

All Russian commercial flights were banned from UK airspace soon after the Ukrainian invasion began.

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